INDIAN CLIFF DWELLINGS NAT'L MONUMENT near SILVER CITY, NM

Wednesday, March 25th, we left Las Cruses with an extra day of clothes in case we would decide to stay overnight because of the distance to Silver City.  But in spite of the VERY CURVY roads, we did make the drive back in the same day.  The drive itself was beautiful and interesting!!

Wouldn't you love to live here?
What a view!!

We crossed the Continental Divide shortly after leaving
Las Cruses.

This area has a heavy history of open pit copper mining, Apache Indians, and Pueblo Indian people, Wildlife and native birding. It is also known as the Trail of the Mountain Spirits. The legendary Apache leader, Geronimo, was born nearby at the Gila River headwaters in the 1820's.

Much of the drive was through the Gila Nat'l Forest.

I could see how the Indians found caves conducive
to making many roomed dwellings.

Getting closer??
Over a three hour trip of 100 plus miles.

The only wild life that we saw while driving.
Gary did not spot them until after I told him that
one was not more then six - eight feet from the car.

And let the curves begin!! And BEGIN they did!!
We should have counted the curves!!
And Don, much worse than the ones we took you over!!

We were surprised to see that they run a sweeper
over miles and miles of this road!!

And one of many switch-backs!!

Many valleys!!

Wonder where he is going?

Ah-h, same place we are!!

We arrived before noon.

The dwellings are on the back side of this cliff, facing the south for the sun's heat. The ancient Puebloan people who built these cliff dwellings belonged to a larger tradition that included part of what is now Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and northern Mexico. They built their dwellings in these caves with rock, mortar and timber felled between 1276 - 1287. The pottery found in the caves indicate that they came from the Tularosa River region to the north. They moved on by about the 1300's.
More than 40 sites are protected within the 533 acres of Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. These include pit houses to surface pueblos. There are SIX caves in this set of dwellings. The Gila River was a source of water for the area and the land was fertile for many crops and native wildlife. But migration appears to be one way to cope with the cycles of droughts common in the southwest.

The beginning of the climb was gradual and not
much obstacles.

First view of the dwellings with many feet to climb yet!!

This was the kind of walk to return, but a
much longer walk with many rocks on the path.

 

Hm-m-m, Gary wondered where the Indians got the bolts!!

Last leg of the return.

There was an eighteen step ladder to get into one of the dwellings!

It was a mile and a half walk, round trip.  Gary said that IN was easier than OUT.  I wimped out of the trip and Gary said I would never have made it.  I knew!!  It would have been good exercise, but too hard on the knees and one hip. Gary admitted that it was almost too much for him also.

The trip back, we drove a few different roads, so it was not quite as long a drive of curves.  What a drive!!
Our next trip is to Carlsbad Caverns this next week a different direction out of Las Cruces. So we are looking forward to that also.  So stay tuned!!

MORE OF LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO

March 17th, Saturday, Gary went to a Car Show. I told him he should do the Blog about it, but he has not bothered. So I will show a couple of his pictures because they took my fancy. I tell him when you see one car show you see them all!! Of course, that is not actually true, but one goes a long way for me.

Reminds me of Harold's old green truck,
though Harold never restored his.

Just interesting.

Gary could have bought this for me.
I always want a yellow convertible though it
doesn't have to be a VW.

Then we went back to La Posta for dinner on Sunday, March 25th, and I told you that I would take some more pictures from there since our last Blog. So here they are.

Views from our table.

Gary got many years out of this picture!!

And Gary got many miles out of this dinner.
Between both of our dinners, we had many more
meals through that week!!

These are more views inside the restaurant.  I promised them, but decided not to go back to the first Blog to insert them.  Just enjoyed the adobe style and the age of the building. La Posta is in the Historic part of town, Mesilla NM.

Another mountain view, north in Las Cruses, I think.
I can't keep my directions correct in my mind.

Tim and Judy, I think that it will be a long time before we see another quartet, like the one that we saw in Mesa AZ.  

We went to see one here in Las Cruses, only to find that two of the members were not with them because of health. So we saw just two members. Another fellow from this church did signing with them on one song. So that added a little more interest. They did some hymns, and then other songs that the mother had written which were interesting. Some with a Western theme.

Stone Mountain Spear and ?? Dart.
So the names were good for a few jokes, but I can't
remember Dart;s first name. 

In the mean time we have done some Thrift Shops and visiting with Mildred and Pete, Gary's cousins.  The rest of the time we just puttered around here at home and rocked in the winds. I guess that is typical March weather here!! Gary had the car washed and it wasn't 24 hours before it was covered from heavy dust spots again. Needless to say, Gary is irritated!!
Gary went to see Pete this morning to be interviewed about his military service time.  He's doing the interviews for the Library of Congress for Veteran's stories.
I have begun some food preparation for Easter Sunday's dinner here at home.  We decided that going to stand waiting for an hour or more to eat out was not worth the wait.  So we will have Chicken Alfredo here at home.
Our other outing this past week was a trip northeast to Silver City to see the Indian Cliff Dwellings, but I will show those pictures in a separate Blog. Check it out!!